Ipswich Town chief executive Mark Ashton says he hopes work will start on the club's new state of the art training ground facilities by the end of this summer.

Since the club's new American owners arrived in 2021, significant money has been spent on infrastructure. The interior and exterior of Portman Road has been upgraded, a new £2.5m playing surface was installed last the summer, while three new pitches at Playford Road arrived at a further cost of £1.5m.

“Over the next two or three weeks you’re going to see some additional announcements in relation to the training ground," said Ashton, speaking to Blues legend Matt Holland in an interview for TownTV. 

"We’ve got initial designs now in place, which (manager) Kieran (McKenna) has had a quick look at and will get to tweak. We’ll then be presenting those to the players. 

“If everything goes well I’d like to be through the planning phase this summer and have people on site straight after that. The three pitches are up and running, so that's an advantage. Now the building is key because we need to give Kieran and his staff a professional environment."

McKenna, who knows what elite facilities look like having previously worked at Tottenham and Manchester United, said: "The club have done everything they can with the existing buildings and infrastructure to get them as presentable as they can be and to utilise the space.

"But when you get to a certain level, having top-class facilities can be a big part in recruiting players, retaining your best players and growing a football club."

Town have regularly been attracting capacity crowds of 29,000+ to Portman Road this campaign, having quickly sold 22,000 season tickets following promotion to the Championship.

On the potential to increase the size of the Cobbold Stand, Ashton said: “Again, there will be information on that in the next two or three weeks.

"Let me just manage expectations on that though. We're working with architects and the local authority on a scale - and we're pretty well down the line on that - but that's not an imminent build project.

"We've got other projects that sit well ahead of that. It’s certainly on our horizon though."

The Blues currently sit second in the Championship following six straight wins. The 10-game run-in starts with a televised match at Cardiff City tomorrow lunchtime (12.30pm, Sky Sports).